Wednesday, January 29, 2003

out of Africa
My work friend Jeff has a great communications story from Real Life. His daughter was on a semester in Africa, but she couldn't access her college's online course registration from an Internet cafe. So she started IM-ing with Jeff, who got on the phone with a sympathetic person in the registrar's office. His daughter asked about classes via IM, Jeff asked via phone, the registrar told him what was available, he IM-ed the answer to his daughter... and so on, until she was registered.

I mentioned to Jeff the other day that I had just IM-ed with my dad. Jeff asked if I was asking him for help registering for courses.
posted by Tom 10:40 AM

Monday, January 27, 2003

maple sugaring
We went to the Great Swamp Outdoor Education Center on Saturday for maple sugaring. It was very interesting for me and the kids (Mallary was home getting ready for bookclub). After an explanation indoors, we went outside to tap a maple tree and hang a bucket. One tree produces an average of 40 gallons of sap, which results in about one quart of syrup. It was certainly too cold for the sap to run, though. (Usually the days are warm enough in late January, but not this year.) Afterwards, they had a surprise treat for us: a campfire, sharpened sticks, and all the makings for s'mores. Ellie and I got complimented on our expert s'more technique!

posted by Tom 11:46 AM

Tuesday, January 21, 2003

game night
Mallary and I had a great time the other night at Ilija and Nancy's game night. There were lots of competitive but good-natured people there. Mallary and I ended up on opposite sides of a full-contact Pictionary match. Only three of the ten players were native English speakers, but the quality of play was dazzling. Well, there were some exceptions ... one of my teammates drew the word "coyote." You can see his handiwork here. (Note: our team lost that turn.)

A couple of observations about the game:

• The rules are not very precise--- something that a bunch of nerds would (and did) pick up on immediately.
• The words are a lot harder than those in Pictionary Junior!

posted by Tom 11:24 AM

Sunday, January 19, 2003

security strikes
Starting soon, this blog will be password-protected. Contact Tom or Mallary for password!
posted by Tom 4:51 PM

Saturday, January 18, 2003

y not?
Ellie has expressed some interest in spelling her name Elly. Sometimes she writes it that way. I wonder if this tendency is inherited from Elayne, who was born Elaine?
posted by Tom 7:52 AM

Friday, January 17, 2003

my new Jaguar
Well, AT&T may be delaying raises for six months, but at least I got a new iMac for my home office. It has all the great user interface pyrotechnics for which Apple is famous. But the real (nerd) clincher is that the operating system underneath the covers is Unix. Hacker heaven. (Ellie can't wait to use it to visit barbie.com).
posted by Tom 11:19 PM

Tuesday, January 14, 2003

hold your breath!
It's often difficult to predict what is going on in our kids' minds (if anything). In the car, Clara declared that if any of our friends were to become an astronaut, it would be Ilija. "If he needs to change air tanks, you know how long he can hold his breath." Ilija may not win every race in his pool, but he is the undisputed underwater endurance champion.
posted by Tom 9:08 AM

Monday, January 13, 2003

Vacationkids
Mallary found a travel agent that sounds great for us --- the family travel to London package is pretty much exactly what we are looking for. I talked with Sally at Vacationkids, and she has a ton of relevant and current information about family-friendly vacations in London. She's putting together some ideas for us--- we are getting pretty excited!
posted by Tom 12:13 PM

Wednesday, January 08, 2003

googling an old friend
Inspired by the trashy-sounding premise of a new Fox reality series ("High School Reunion"), I used Google to look for an old friend from college. Found a possible hit, sent email, and an hour later was talking to Ken Cozette, who was the RA in my dorm (Peyton Hall). Ken also has two girls, younger than ours. When I remember his off-center sense of humor, I sometimes laugh out loud. He had been an engineering major, but was back at SMU studying music. I remember that he signed one of his marvelous letters like this: "From the far reaches of the third standard deviation, Ken."

BTW, it's much easier to find a Cozette than a Smith.
posted by Tom 4:04 PM

scooby-dooby doo, where are you ... at 3 am?
Ellie got up several times in the night, complaining of bad dreams, and asking me to "sleep with her for 2 minutes." Mallary talked to Ellie in the morning light, who admitted she didn't actually have a bad dream, but was just thinking of the scary parts in Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo is out, Angelina Ballerina is back on our TiVo.

Maybe there was something to my mother's refusal to let me watch Captain America, claiming I would have bad dreams.
posted by Tom 11:52 AM

Wednesday, January 01, 2003

brown split-level, no A/C
Mallary just added a page to Clara's class website, on their Indian dwelling project. (Clara's is the two-story adobe dwelling.)
posted by Tom 10:44 PM

New Year's meal
We did our best to get the new year off to a propitious start with blackeyed peas for good luck. Since Ellie had really enjoyed Grandmama's broccoli cornbread, she and I made a batch this morning to accompany the peas. Couldn't find the Jiffy cornbread mix specified in the recipe, but another brand worked beautifully. As I was reading the recipe, I thought the ingredients looked remarkably healthy. Then I noticed the instruction to saute a cup of chopped onion in a stick of butter. Oh well, a little wedge won't hurt...

posted by Tom 6:16 PM

pilgrimage to Arkansas
We had a really great trip to Arkansas this year. By staying a bit longer than usual, we got to see more people. Here are just a few highlights:

• Having the whole Smith family there, including newest member Xan and honorary member Ionia. Xan is equally-huge parts cute and easy.


• Watching Lucy's tennis lesson. She is very impressive! We really appreciated all the time she chose to spend with the family, when she had thousands of other options.


• A visit to the Delta Rivers Nature Center, and following Ellie's lead to explore the Primitive Trail.


• Double-date with Liz and Ted, while Mom and Dad took the kids to see the lights display at the Regional Park and put them to bed.


• Mom's chicken spaghetti. I requested this knowing that Ellie would love it as much as I do, but she wasn't in the mood to try it.


• A Christmas-afternoon trip to Pinnacle Mountain. Ralph had this good idea, and the girls enjoying some minor rock-scrambling and the great view.


• Granddaddy toast--- Clara loved helping Granddaddy with his weekly sourdough ritual.


• Hearing the news that Greg Thomasson is getting married, and meeting his lovely fiancee.


• Visits with Laura, the Fullers, the Teague/Gaudins, the Coulters, Mr. Boast, Aunt Betty and Uncle Bill.

Liz, Ted, and Lucy were great hosts for the big gatherings, on short notice. What is their secret?
posted by Tom 8:00 AM

our circle of friends (ho-hum)
Our friend Maria Pope sent us a holiday card this year ---- not just any card, but David Letterman's famous holiday card. Mallary fielded a call from Maria's assistant, gathering our address, but we didn't realize what was going on until the mail came. Ah, the benefits of an SMU education!
posted by Tom 7:45 AM